Visitors to Disneyland can now purchase specialty doughnuts at the coffee stand in the Hub (Central Plaza) in the morning hours. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Visitors to Disneyland can now purchase specialty doughnuts at the coffee stand in the Hub (Central Plaza) in the morning hours. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

One of the doughnuts offered for purchase at the outdoor coffee stand in the Hub (Central Plaza) at Disneyland. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

One of the doughnuts offered for purchase at the outdoor coffee stand in the Hub (Central Plaza) at Disneyland. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The town of Springfield, based on “The Simpsons” television show, includes a Lard Lads Donut Shop. (File photo by Ed Crisostomo, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lard Lad Donuts, a donut shop in The Simpsons, is featured at Universal Studios area known as the town of Springfield featured in the television show. (File photo by Kyusung Gong, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get your taste buds ready for the next battle in the Great Theme Park War of Southern California.

And you might want to adjust your belts and waistlines too, because Disney and Universal are gearing up to fight for your money and loyalty with doughnuts.

These aren’t your typical Krispy Kremes, as you might expect from places as creative as the local theme parks. Designed to end up on your Instagram account before making their way into your belly, these doughnuts offer attention-grabbing toppings that help push their calorie counts into levels best calculated by NASA supercomputers.

But, hey, it’s a theme park, so calories don’t count, right? We’ll just work ’em off walking over to get another Fastpass. At least that’s the story I tell myself whenever I’m tempted by some new diet-busting treat like these.

Universal Studios Hollywood got this trend started locally last year when it opened Lard Lad Donuts in its Simpsons-themed Springfield USA land. That walk-up window offered concoctions such as a maple-glazed doughnut topped with strips of bacon and a chocolate-glazed s’mores doughnut finished with toasted mini-marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs.

The big draw, though, was the Big Pink, a giant yeast doughnut glazed with pink frosting and topped with colored sprinkles – a larger-than-life re-creation of the doughnuts that Homer Simpson so often scarfs down instead of working while on the job in “The Simpsons” TV show.

But it’s not a war until your opponent returns fire. And Disneyland did that last week when it introduced its own lineup of doughnuts from the coffee cart on the hub in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Disney’s trio of new breakfast treats include a Long John topped with Fruity Pebbles-like cereal, another Long John glazed in chocolate and topped with chunks of peanut butter cups, and a traditional round glazed doughnut topped with waffle cone pieces, M&Ms-style chocolate candies and jimmies.

The Disneyland doughnuts cost quite a bit more than their Universal competition. Disneyland is charging $5.75 for each of its doughnuts, compared with about $3.50 for the regular-size Universal doughnuts and about $5 for the Big Pink. That hasn’t stopped Disneyland’s doughnuts from selling out in the morning each day since they’ve become available.

Is this a test by Disney to see if its fans will support a permanent Lard Lad-style doughnut shop? At this point, who knows? But Universal’s not done fighting this battle. It has one more weapon to launch – the first Southern California location for the doughnut store that started the whole over-the-top doughnut trend.

Portland’s Voodoo Doughnut is opening “soon” at Universal’s City Walk, just across from the Hard Rock Cafe. Known for marking its doughnuts with double-entendre-laden names that Universal and Disney carefully have avoided in their theme park knockoffs, Voodoo Doughnut long has topped its creations with enough cereal, bacon and other sweets to stock a resort hotel’s breakfast buffet.

Voodoo Doughnut also charges way less than theme park prices for its treats – with most doughnuts selling between $1 and $2 each at its Portland flagship. Will Voodoo Doughnuts need to tone down the raunch – and boost its prices – to fit in the environment at City Walk? Whether it does or not, local theme park fans are about to have the opportunity to gorge themselves on even more varieties of lavishly topped fat bombs in the weeks to come.

After doughnuts, what’s next?

I’ll tell ya – milkshakes.

Universal Orlando last month opened The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen, a steampunk-inspired eatery that features elaborate milkshakes, including ones topped with entire cupcakes and slices of pie.

To counter, Walt Disney World is about to relaunch the Planet Hollywood restaurant in its Disney Springs shopping and entertainment district as Planet Hollywood Observatory, with its own collection of “Supernova Shakes,” topped with slices of cake and enough candy to kill Willy Wonka.

If those shakes boost sales at their Orlando restaurants, you’d better believe that Disney and Universal wouldn’t hesitate to find a way to bring them to their Southern California parks soon.

Maybe the next step after that will be theme park gym memberships. Heaven knows I’ll need one if I keep eating this stuff.

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